Escape ladder



June 20, 1967 B JR 3,326,322

ESCAPE LADDER Filed Sept 27, 1965 T1 1- W T1 L INVENTOR Eeea 6 300g Jfe.

ATTORN EYS United States Patent C) 3,326,322 ESCAPE LADDER Fred H. Buck, In, Old Denville Road, Boonton Township, Morris County, NJ. 07005 Filed Sept. 27, 1965, Scr. No. 490,342 11 Claims. (Cl. 182198) This invention relates to a fire escape ladder and in particular to collapsible ladders of the type adapted to be suspended from a window opening or the like.

Ladders of this type are presently used in homes to permit the occupants therein to quickly leave the upper stories of a home in the event of a fire. The fiexible ladder is collapsed into a small area and stored in a container placed near the access window. In the event of a fire the ladder is quickly assembled and secured to the window sill and thrown from the window. The occupants then proceed to descend on the ladder to safety below.

One problem involved in the use of the fire ladders, as presently known, is that upon descent, the individuals weight tends to swing the ladder and the person, in a rocking motion, causing the person to be swung thereby into the window below causing injury to the person.

It is an object of this invention to provide an improved construction of such flexible fire escape ladders to overcome this problem. The improved ladder shown herein utilizes rungs of varying widths along the length of the ladder. At the upper portion of the ladder, which is supported from the escape window, the rungs are of normal width as presently used. However, at the lower end of the ladder the rungs are increased in width so that they extend across the horizontal dimension of the windows below, so that in the situation in which the weight of the person descending would tend to swing the ladder in towards the window, the rungs themselves would strike the building wall or the window ledge to prevent any contact between the person and the lower window.

It is another object of this invention to provide a fire ladder which is light in weight, able to support a large load, which is fire resistant, and which is easy to assemble and use.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a fire escape ladder which can be readily stored in a corner of the room and which can be readily assembled and placed in position for use when the need arises so that children may be trained to assemble and use the ladder when no adult is present.

Another feature of this invention is the construction of a ladder in which the rungs consist of a metallic tubing covered by a nylon cover or sheath. The ladder stiles are similarly made of a fire resistant nylon strip to which the nylon covering of the rungs is secured.

It is yet another object of this invention to provide a fire laddder which does not injure the user by preventing the ladder rungs from becoming heated even when in close proximity to the fire area.

Another feature of this invention is the placing of a lightweight fire resistant spacer around the rungs of the ladder to prevent the ladder from contacting the building wall.

Further features and objects of this invention and corresponding details of construction which are illustrated by specific embodiments thereof, are described in the following specification and are depicted in the following drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an elevation view showing one embodiment of this invention in use;

FIG. 2 is a cross sectional View taken across lines 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a detailed view in section of the ladder shown in FIG. 2;

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FIG. 4 is a detailed elevation view, in section, showing the manner in which the rungs of the ladder are attached to the stiles; and

FIG. 5 is an elevation view showing another embodiment of this ladder, according to this invention in use.

In FIG. 1 one possible embodiment of a fire escape ladder according to this invention is shown, as used in a typical multistoried dwelling. The ladder, generally referred to by numeral 1, is shown suspended from an upper level window generally referred to as 2. The width of the rungs 3 at the upper portion of the ladder, i.e., the portion immediately below the ledge of window 2, are, as shown in FIG. 1, of a lesser width than the rungs on the lower portion of the ladder, generally referred to as 4. It is seen in FIG. 1 that the width of rungs 4 is greater than the width of lower window 5 which represents any of the windows which are below escape window 2.

The increasing of the width of the lower rungs to a width greater than that of the lower window, prevents the person descending from being swung, due to his own weight, against the lower window, thereby injuring himself by contact with the window and by possible contact with the fire itself.

In FIG. 2 is shown one possible means for using the ladder, as shown in FIG. 1, in a home or ofiice. A pair of mounting brackets 6, each has one end thereof formed with a plurality of right angle bends so as to fit over a window sill 7, as shown in FIG. 2.

The downwardly extending arm 8 of bracket 6 terminates at the lower end thereof in a hooked portion 9. An attaching plate member 10 has two horizontally extending slots provided therein, one of which is adapted to be placed onto hooked portion 9, so as to be retained thereto.

Through the other of said sl-ots, the top end of stile 15 is placed, folded over the lower end of plate 10 and sewed to a lower portion of itself. In this manner the ladder is secured to the mounted bracket. The ladder components are placed within an area of the room preferably near the window. When a fire occurs, the user merely assembles the ladder and throws it from the window.

The construction of the ladder according to this invention is shown more clearly in FIG. 4. The rung 3, 4 of the ladder consists of a hollow metallic tube 11 which is circular in cross section and which can be made of any light metal, preferably aluminum. Around tubing 11 is placed a nylon sheathing 12 which is of greater axial length than the tubing for reasons which shall shortly be explained. As shown in FIG. 4, the lower end 13 of the nylon sheathing extends beyond the hollow tube, and is folded upwards. Each end 13 of the sheathing is then secured by means such as sewing, to each stile 15, so that each rung extends horizontally and parallel to each of the other rungs. The stiles 15 are made of similar fire resistant coated nylon.

The use of nylon as both the rung sheathing material and the stile material provides a lightweight ladder which also is able to support heavy loads. Furthermore, the placing of fire resistant sheathing around the rung enables the use of a metallic rung which provides strength for the rung support, while at the same time preventing the rung surface from becoming heated d 'ue to the surrounding fire. Accordingly, the ladder may be used without the risk of the user burning his hands while descending.

A further feature of this invention is the provision of spacing means 14 which are placed over the sheathed rungs as shown in FIGS. 1, 2, 4, and 5. The spacer 14 is in the form of a cylinder and is made of a lightweight fire resistant material such as polyurethane.

Two of such spacers may be disposed on each rung, one

at each end, to prevent the rung from striking against the building wall, thus preventing injury to the hands of the user.

The placing of the spacers 14 on the rungs 3, 4, also permits the user to obtain a proper foot position as the rungs are always kept at a suitable distance from the building wall by means of said spacers.

In'FIG. is shown another possible embodiment of this ladder, employing the inventive concept of widening the lower rungs of the ladder so that at the window beneath the escape window, the rungs are wider than the escape window, so that the person descending will not swing into a window during the descent. In this embodiment, the upper rungs 16 are not of a single width as in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, but rather increase linearly in width from the top rung to a point at which the ladder will fall over the window beneath the escape window, at which point the rungs are again made of a width greater that this lower window, and are maintained at that width over the remaining length of the ladder.

The manner in which the fire ladder is assembled and used is now described. Brackets 6 are placed over the window sill as shown in FIG. 2 and spaced at the proper distance.

The hollow metal tubes 11 are then placed through each of the nylon sheaths 12 to form the rungs 3, 4. Care must be taken to see that the proper length of tube 11 is placed in the corresponding length of sheathing.

Two polyurethane spacers 14 are then placed around each rung 3, 4. Each spacer 14 is severed along one axial surface thereof to place the spacer over the rung. The spacer need merely be pulled apart along the axis of the severing and is then placed over the rung. Upon the releasing of the pulling force the spacer will come together and be securely retained to the rung.

Once the spacers are secured, the attaching plate is mounted to hooked portion 9 of bracket 6, and the entire ladder is released from theescape window 2 to the ground below.

Due to the ease of assembly, children may be readily trained to assemble and use the fire ladder so that in the event of fire the ladder may be deployed quickly and easily, even when no adult is present.

It is, of course, possible that other embodiments of the escape ladder, according to this invention may be developed or devised, by one skilled in the art. It is therefore my intention that my invention be limited not by the embodiment shown herein but rather by the scope of the claims which are appended hereto.

What I claim is:

1. A ladder, comprising a pair of stiles made of flexible material and arranged in spaced relationship to each other, and a plurality of rungs disposed one above the other between said stiles, each rung including an elongated substantially horizontally extending core and a sheathing surrounding said core and open at least at one end to permit insertion of said core, said sheathing having portions respectively extending laterally beyond said core at opposite ends thereof, said portions being folded upwardly and connected to said stiles adjacent said ends of said core, said stiles preventing movement of said core from said sheathing when said ladder is in operative position.

2. A ladder according to claim 1, in which said sheathing and said stiles are made of fire-resistant material.

3. A ladder according to claim 1, in which said core is formed by tubing.

4. A ladder according to claim 1, in which each of said rungs includes spacing means placed around said sheathing.

5. A fire ladder as recited in claim 4, wherein said spacing means comprises a polyurethane cylinder having .a passageway therethrough, said passageway being adapted to fit around said sheathing.

6. A ladder according to claim 1, in which said sheathing and said stiles are made of fire'resistant coated nylon.

7. A fire ladder as recited in claim 1, comprising mounting means connected to the top of said ladder for securing said ladder to an escape window.

8. A fire ladder as recited in claim 6, wherein said mounting means comprise a bracket adapted to fit over the sill of a window, having a portion extending downwardly therefrom, a hooked portion disposed at the bottom end of said downwardly extending portion, an attaching plate having two slots therein, one of said slots being adapted to fit over said hooked portion, the other of said slots being adapted to receive the top end of one of said stiles therethrough.

9. A fire ladder for use in a multistoried structure and to be thrown from a Window, comprising: a pair of stiles made of flexible material and arranged in spaced relationship to each other, first and second rung means respectively interposed between the upper and lower portions of said stiles, said first rung means having a length smaller than the width of said window, said second rung means having a substantially uniform length exceeding the width of said window, each rung means including an elongated core and a sheathing surrounding said core and open at least at one end to permit insertion of said core, said sheathing having portions respectively extending laterally beyond said core at opposite ends thereof, said sheathing portions being folded upwardly and connected to said stiles adjacent said ends of said core, whereby movement of said core from said sheathing is prevented in operative position of said ladder.

10. A fire ladder according to claim 9, in which said first rung means include a plurality of rungs of the same length.

11. A fire ladder according to claim 9, in which said first rung means include a plurality of rungs of a length linearly increasing in downward direction of said ladder.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 20,875 7/1858 Crimsley 182-198 190,342 5/1877 Lake 182-198 265,531 10/1882 Miller 182- 197 281,154 7/1883 Solomons 182-196 686,182 11/1901 Wright 182-196 806,693 12/1905 Mitchell 182-196 1,644,694 10/1927 Rowe 182194 2,211,259 8/1940 Diehl 182198 3,225,862 12/1965 Fink 18246 REINALD P, MACHADO, Primary Examiner. 

1. A LADDER, COMPRISING A PAIR OF STILES MADE OF FLEXIBLE MATERIAL AND ARRANGED IN SPACED RELATIONSHIP TO EACH OTHER, AND A PLURALITY OF RUNGS DISPOSED ONE ABOVE THE OTHER BETWEEN SAID STILES, EACH RUNG INCLUDING AN ELONGATED SUBSTANTIALLY HORIZONTALLY EXTENDING CORE AND A SHEATHING SURROUNDING SAID CORE AND OPEN AT LEAST AT ONE END TO PERMIT INSERTION OF SAID CORE, SAID SHEATHING HAVING PORTIONS RESPECTIVELY EXTENDING LATERALLY BEYOND SAID CORE AT OPPOSITE ENDS THEREOF, SAID PORTIONS BEING FOLDED UPWARDLY AND CONNECTED TO SAID STILES ADJACENT SAID ENDS OF SAID CORE, SAID STILES PREVENTING MOVEMENT OF SAID CORE FROM SAID SHEATHING WHEN SAID LADDER IS IN OPERATIVE POSITION. 